Grace personified: Waheeda Rehman
Shruti Pandit, TNN 26 November 2009, 12:00am IST
She was the queen bee and the dancing diva of her era. And the audience whistled when she suddenly burst into a dance on her old hit in Lamhe.
Waheeda Rehman has seen it all. She has witnessed the changes in the pattern of production and participated in it. And she has her own candid viewpoints.
“Music earlier used to be an integral part of the film,” she begins. “The background score and the songs were as important, to take the story forward as were the screenplay and dialogues.”
Her own songs are an example. “Take Kahin pe nigahen, kahin pe nishaana...or Jane kya tune kahi...or songs in Mujhe Jeene Do...all take the story to the next level.”
“Yes. Today that rarely happens. Most often the songs are used as a relief. They have nothing to do with the film per say. And all look almost the same. Just replace the central characters and a step here and there...choreography remains the same in most cases. So does the beat. We have so many classical dances and folk dances in the country but nobody seems to be using them,” she points out. “How often do you come out of a film these days humming a song? Earlier I thought that my age had something to do with it. But then I spoke with some youngsters and they seemed to agree in retrospect.”
Another point Waheeda Rehman makes is that Indian music in films has zeroed down to Bhangra. “Arre bhai...there is so much more to Indian music than those beats,” she argues. “I have done bhangra...nothing against it. But why do we present only that to the Indian and global audience. Punjabi language and music has become the language of the film industry unfortunately. Be it Singh is King or London Dreams or New York Beats are the same. agreed you cannot use classical or folk music in NewYork or Singh is King but London Dreams — it’s supposed to be a musical. Music should have been the soul of it. But that is the weakest thing in the film. So much could have been done — classical music and folk music could have been used. But they didn’t. They want to finish of work ASAP. Quantity, not quality has taken over.”
Waheeda remembers the efforts taken by each director for every song shot. “The director’s word used to be final. Today directors don’t even come on sets for a dance sequence. Its canned by the choreographer.”
GuruDutt, Vijay Anand, Raj Kapoor Dev Anand — she has worked with maestros. “Each of them had an individual style. That’s why, even an ordinary romantic song minus choreographer made an impact.”
She has witnessed the change in Dev Anand from her first film CID to his directorial debut Prem Pujari. “He is a bundle of energy, always raring to go; keeping his past behind. But I think he should now have someone else write his films. He should concentrate on production and acting.”
Which old hits can be remade today with relevance? “Guide, Pyaasa — these are my films that can be remade with current actors. But the music and lyrics should not be changed. Because you cannot have a samba or bhangra beat for the seduction scene in Pyaasa...the beauty will be lost,” she concludes.